Coronation Street has celebrated 62 weddings in its 43-year TV history - but this is the most expensive ever.

A pink bridal car with purple bejewelled seats, a white horse for the groom and a wedding cake in the shape of the Taj Mahal are just a few of the spectacular touches as shopgirl Sunita finally ties the knot with fiance, Dev.

Corrie bosses have splashed out a reported #50,000 to ensure that the show's first Indian wedding - which shows on Sunday, October 24 - will be a day to remember.

Producers had a Hindu temple built just for the big day and members of Oldham Indian Community Association were hired as guests to mingle with regulars such as Deirdre and Ken Barlow, Roy and Hayley Cropper and Ciaran McCarthy. For Shobna Gulati, who plays Sunita, the big day was so realistic that she even suffered pre-wedding nerves.

"I woke up in a cold sweat at 3am, worrying that I had to get everyone up and out of the house by 6am," she laughs. "My sister Sushma is playing a wedding guest and my nine-year-old son Akshay has a cameo role.

"It's a bit of nepotism really ... Akshay plays a sarbala, a page boy, and he sits on the horse with Dev. It's very dramatic."

For a normal day's filming at Coronation Street, Shobna only spends 15 minutes having her hair and make-up done. But for the wedding day scenes - which took a week to film - it took two hours.

Asian wedding hair and make-up specialist Nina Haider was brought in especially - and the results were stunning.

Shobna wears a red tikka jewel on her forehead and tiny jewels over the curve of her eye.

The night before filming an Asian beautician visited her at her mother's home in Oldham, Lancashire, where she spent three hours painstakingly applying intricate henna patterns to Shobna's hands and feet. The practice - known as mendhi - is an Indian wedding tradition.

"It felt like I was getting married for real because the mendhi girl always goes to the bride's mother's house before the wedding," explains Shobna. "The only difference was that there wasn't the usual singing and dancing... we watched Corrie instead."

The show's wardrobe department went through dozens of Asian wedding magazines before coming up with Sunita's stunning outfit, a beautiful embroidered red skirt and dress - known as a Gagra Choli.

The finishing touches were ankle bracelets, which Shobna's other sister Hema sent over from India.

Sunita's outfit came from an Indian wedding dress shop in Leicester, while many of the wedding guests - including bridesmaid Shelley - were decked out in chiffon saris from Bombay Stores in Bradford.

Shobna and Jimmi Harkishin, who plays groom Dev Alahan, were both given video's of an Indian wedding to help them prepare.

Much of the meticulous planning was down to production designer Julian Perkins.

The show had originally considered using a real Hindu temple, but the week-long filming would cause too much disruption, so a team of 30 staff spent a month building their own beside Weatherfield's cobbles. "We went for lots of reds and gold," he explains.

"The temple is decorated with statues of Ganesh the Hindu elephant god and Indian caterers prepared the elaborate fresh fruit displays."

The cake alone cost more than #1,000 to make - even though it was mainly polystyrene. Only a small portion was real cake in case they needed to cut into it.

Sunita, who is to be given away by her former fiance Ciaran McCarthy - played by Keith Duffy - arrives at the ceremony in a bright pink 1956 Indian Austin Ambassador, driven by Les Battersby in full livery.

Dev arrives on a horse festooned in flowers and wearing an impressive red, gold and blue headdress and a cream suit.

"Apparently in Indian they use elephants as well, but we thought it was probably a bit easier to get a horse in Manchester," says Jimmi.

Shobna drew on her parents' experiences. "My dad was on a white horse, and when my brother Raj married a few years ago he took riding lessons.

"He used to go up and down the road at home ... we had to clear it with the police."

The screen wedding also brought back memories of Shobna's own wedding.

The 38-year-old actress married architect Anshu Srivastava, but the couple split when Shobna was in her 20s.

"Of course it brings back memories. But that's fine. I enjoy memories and I still have happy memories," she says.

However, this is soapland and things rarely go according to plan. Dev's bitter ex, Maya, has her spectacular revenge and police arrive to arrest Sunita and Dev just minutes after tying the knot.

It remains to be seen whether Sunita's dream of living happily ever after as Mrs Alahan will come true.